Apps

Microsoft’s Edge browser gets shared Workspaces, new security features and more • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Apps, browsers, Microsoft, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Ignite 2022No Comments

It’s Microsoft Ignite this week and while a lot of the announcements this week target the kinds of IT professionals and admins who really need more deployment options for Azure Kubernetes Service through Azure Arc, the company is also announcing a few user-facing updates to its Edge browser. The most important of these is likely Edge Workspaces, a new feature (currently in preview) that will allow teams to share browser tabs. Microsoft argues that this feature can be useful when bringing on new team members to an existing project. Instead of sharing lots of links and files, the team can simply share a single like to an Edge Workspace (which will then likely consist of lots of links and files, but hey, at least it’s just one link to share). As the project evolves, the tabs are updated in real time. I guess that’s a use case. We’ve seen our share of extensions that do similar things, none of which ever get very popular. Meanwhile, teams share these links and files in other ways (think Confluent, etc.). Image Credits: Microsoft On the security front, Microsoft is bringing typo protection for website URLs to the browser, promising to protect “users from accidentally navigating to online fraud sites after misspelling the website address by suggesting the website that the user intended.” Nothing too complicated here, and a useful feature for sure. Also new is an opt-in enhanced security mode that automatically applies the most conservative settings when you surf to unfamiliar websites. It disables just-in-time JavaScript compilation, for example. The idea here is that users and admins can set off often a user has to visit a site before it’s considered ‘familiar’ and set the level of security accordingly. That won’t help if a familiar site is hacked and somebody introduces malicious code, but it should prevent quite a few security issues. Finally, Microsoft is also introducing a number of new accessibility features. Edge now features live captions when audio is playing (taking a cue from Google’s playbook on Android) and an enhanced narrator experience now provides more contextual information about fields and buttons for visually impaired users. With this update, screen readers can now also read Edge’s Instant Answers for queries like “Seattle weather.” And with page colors, users will soon be able to change — you guess it — page colors to improve readability and color contrast.

Microsoft brings DALL-E 2 to the masses with Designer and Image Creator • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Apps, Azure OpenAI Service, dall-e 2, image generation, Microsoft, Microsoft Ignite 2022, OpenAI, Robotics & AINo Comments

Microsoft is making a major investment in DALL-E 2, OpenAI’s AI-powered system that generates images from text, by bringing it to first-party apps and services. During its Ignite conference this week, Microsoft announced that it’s integrating DALL-E 2 with the newly announced Microsoft Designer app and Image Creator tool in Bing and Microsoft Edge. With the advent of DALL-E 2 and open source alternatives like Stable Diffusion in recent years, AI image generators have exploded in popularity. In September, OpenAI said that more than 1.5 million users were actively creating over 2 million images a day with DALL-E 2, including artists, creative directors and authors. Brands such as Stitch Fix, Nestlé and Heinz have piloted DALL-E 2 for ad campaigns and other commercial use cases, while certain architectural firms have used DALL-E 2 and tools akin to it to conceptualize new buildings. “Microsoft and OpenAI have partnered closely since 2019 to accelerate breakthroughs in AI. We have teamed up with OpenAI to develop, test and responsibly scale the latest AI technologies,” Microsoft CVP of modern life, search and devices Liat Ben-Zur told ZebethMedia via email. “Microsoft is the exclusive provider of cloud computing services to OpenAI and is OpenAI’s preferred partner for commercializing new AI technologies. We’ve started to do this through programs like the Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot, and we’ll continue to explore solutions that harness the power of AI and advanced natural language generation.” Seeking to bring OpenAI’s tech to an even wider audience, Microsoft is launching Designer, a Canva-like web app that can generate designs for presentations, posters, digital postcards, invitations, graphics and more to share on social media and other channels. Designer — whose announcement leaked repeatedly this spring and summer — leverages user-created content and DALL-E 2 to ideate designs, with drop-downs and text boxes for further customization and personalization. Within Designer, users can choose from various templates to get started on specific, defined-dimensions designs for platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn Facebook ads and Instagram Stories. Prebuilt templates are available from the web, as are shapes, photos, icons and headings that can be added to projects. Image Creator in Microsoft Edge and Bing. “Microsoft Designer is powered by AI technology, including DALL-E 2, which means the ability to instantly generate a variety of designs,” Ben-Zur continued. “[It] helps you bring your ideas to life. Designer will remain free during a limited preview period, Microsoft says — users can sign up starting today. Once the Designer app is generally available, it’ll be included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions and have “some” functionality free to use for non-subscribers, though Microsoft didn’t elaborate. Another new Microsoft-developed app underpinned by DALL-E 2 is Image Creator, heading to Bing and Edge in the coming weeks. As the name implies, Image Creator — accessed via the Bing Images tab or bing.com/create, or through the Image Creator icon in the sidebar within Edge — generates art given a text prompt by funneling requests to DALL-E 2, acting like a frontend client for OpenAI’s still-in-beta DALL-E 2 service. Typing in a description of something, any additional context, like location or activity, and an art style will yield an image from Image Creator. “Image Creator will soon create images that don’t yet exist, limited only by your imagination,” Ben-Zur added. Unlike Designer, Image Creator in Bing and Edge will be completely free to use, but Microsoft — wary of potential abuse and misuse — says it’ll take a “measured approach” to rolling out the app. Image Creator will initially only be available in preview for select geographies, which Microsoft says will allow it to gather feedback before expanding the app further. Microsoft Designer. Some image-generating systems have been used to create objectionable content, like graphic violence and pornographic, nonconsensual celebrity deepfakes. The organization funding the development of Stable Diffusion, Stability AI, was even the subject of a critical recent letter from U.S. House Representative Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) to the National Security Advisor (NSA) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, in which she urged the NSA and OSTP to address the release of “unsafe AI models” that “do not moderate content made on their platforms.” Image-generating AI can also pick up on the biases and toxicities embedded in the millions of images from the web used to train them. OpenAI itself noted in an academic paper that an open source implementation of DALL-E could be trained to make stereotypical associations like generating images of white-passing men in business suits for terms like “CEO,” for example. In response to questions about mitigation measures in Designer and Image Creator, Microsoft noted that OpenAI removed explicit sexual and violent content from the dataset used to train DALL-E 2. But Microsoft also said that it took steps of its own, including deploying filters to limit the generation of images that violate content policy, additional query blocking on sensitive topics and technology to deliver “more diverse” images to results. Users will have to agree to terms of use and the aforementioned content policy to start using Designer and Image Creator with their Microsoft account. If a user requests an image deemed inappropriate by Microsoft’s automated filters, they’ll get a warning. If they repeatedly violate the content policy, they’ll be banned, but have a chance to appeal. “It’s important, with early technologies like DALL-E 2, to acknowledge that this is new, and we expect it to continue to evolve and improve,” Ben-Zur said. “We take our commitment to responsible AI seriously … We will not allow users to generate violent content, we may distort people’s faces and won’t show text strings used as input.” Addressing some of the legal questions that’ve sprung up recently around AI-powered image generation systems, Microsoft says that users will have “full” usage rights to commercialize the images they create with Designer and Image Creator. (Among other hosts, Getty Images has banned the upload and sale of illustrations generated using DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion and similar tools, citing fair use concerns about training

The Berlin startup that wants to give Zapier a run for its money • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in AI, Apps, artificial intelligence, Automation, EnterpriseNo Comments

Zapier and IFTTT are, today, very large platforms for creating automation rules for texts or getting two apps to “talk” to each other via APIs. However, these are ‘hammers to crack nuts’ when it comes to processing simple tasks needed inside businesses. Furthermore, if you include images or video, or if the text referred to is unstructured, tools that require that structure won’t work so well, if at all. This was the thinking behind the Berlin-based Levity startup. It came up with a way for businesses to create AI-powered, ‘no-Code’ rules for automating tasks in a way that non-technical people can use. It’s now raised $8.3 million in seed funding, co-led by Balderton Capital (out of London) and Chalfen Ventures, as well as a number of Angels. Founded by Gero Keil and Thilo Hüllmann, Levity allows businesses to use simple templates to automate workflows, with, says the firm, an underlining AI which takes care of the heavy lifting. This uses NLP and computer vision in a single horizontal platform to parse unstructured data types – such as images, texts, and documents. Levity’s customers range from fashion and real estate to shipping, marketing, social media, scientific research, and others. Typical use cases include automatically tagging and routing incoming emails or email attachments; triaging customer support tickets; sorting incoming documents into respective folders; or tagging visual inventory data, such as product photos. A little like Zapier, the platform integrates with Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive, Dropbox, Airtable, and others. The startup says the system is also SOC2 Type I certified and GDPR compliant. In a statement, Gero Keil, co-founder and CEO of Levity said: “Businesses and their customers deserve the same opportunities to reap the benefits of AI and automation as their bigger rivals.” The platform launched this past August subscription prices start at $200 per month. James Wise, partner at Balderton Capital added: “There is an increasing divide between companies with the means to capitalize on AI and automation, and those smaller businesses who lack the resources to do so. Levity is on a mission to close this divide.”

Children’s financial app Greenlight signals next app iteration with family safety features • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Apps, financial education, Fintech, Greenlight, Greenlight Infinity, Tim SheehanNo Comments

Greenlight Financial Technology, a venture-backed fintech company focused on providing a debit card, banking app and financial education to children, added another layer to its subscription plan with the introduction of family safety features. Greenlight Infinity, priced at $14.98 per month for the whole family, includes location sharing to see where anyone in the family is and do check-ins; SOS alerts to emergency contacts and/or 911 with one tap; and crash detection with automatic 911 dispatch wherein if a crash is detected while driving, driver and trip information is provided to emergency services. Tim Sheehan, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight, explained that the driver for the new features aimed at safety was simply, “you need to know where your kids are and want to keep them safe.” “I like the way we implemented the SOS alerts where you can choose to notify your family or the emergency services,” he added. “And if you click the SOS button and don’t choose whether to notify family or emergency services, they’ll just notify both by default. It’s so if you are in a really dangerous situation and can’t make that second decision.” Along with that is the Greenlight Savings Reward, where teens can earn 5% on their savings. Last year, the Atlanta-based company served more than 3 million parents and kids, and that has now increased to more than 5 million, according to the company. It has also raised about $556.5 million in total funding since Greenlight was founded in 2014, according to Crunchbase data. This includes a $260 million Series D round in 2021 that doubled the company’s valuation to $2.3 billion. Greenlight is not alone in turning venture capital heads toward the financial literacy for children and parents space. For example, last year, teen digital banking service Step raised $200 million in a Series C round and this week borrowed $300 million in debt financing to launch a crypto investing feature. Similarly last month, Stack raised $2.7 million for its cryptocurrency education and trading app.

Meta partners with Microsoft to bring Teams, Windows apps and games to Quest devices • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Apps, Gaming, meta, Meta Connect 2022, Microsoft, Quest, Quest Pro, xboxNo Comments

Meta today announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring new content, including Windows apps and Teams tie-ins, to Meta’s metaverse hardware efforts. During Meta’s Connect conference this morning, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft Teams will integrate with Quest devices and that Microsoft will provide a way to stream Windows apps to Meta’s headsets. Nadella also revealed that Microsoft’s streaming game service, Xbox Cloud Gaming, will arrive on Quest devices sometime within the coming months. Image Credits: Meta “We’re bringing the Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experience to Meta Quest in order to give people new ways to connect with each other,” Nadella said, noting that custom avatars will eventually come to the experience. Horizon Workrooms, Meta’s VR space for collaboration, will connect with Teams, he added — allowing people to join a Teams meeting directly from Workrooms. “Now, you can connect, share and collaborate as though you are together in person,” Nadella added. On the Windows end, Nadella said that Microsoft 365 will come to Quest in a way that lets users interact with content from productivity apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The Verge’s Tom Warren notes that these aren’t full-blown versions of apps designed for VR, importantly; They’re Progressive Web Apps, rather. “You [will] have a new way to securely stream the entire Windows experience, including all the personalized app content settings to your VR device with the full power [of Windows,]” Nadella said. “We’ve been thinking about how to bring the power of Microsoft 365 and Windows 365 to 3D spaces to really help drive productivity and enable you to create, communicate and collaborate in completely new ways.” Image Credits: Meta As for Xbox Cloud Gaming, on the Quest, it’ll stream games to a 2D VR screen, supporting existing Xbox controllers. But Nadella hinted that additional features might arrive down the line. Microsoft’s team-up with Meta comes as the former dials back its internal VR and AR hardware projects, including HoloLens. Windows Mixed Reality platform, Microsoft’s software foundation built into Windows 10 to support VR headsets, never quite took off in the way the company hoped. Early this year, Business Insider reported that Microsoft scrapped plans for the third generation of HoloLens in favor of partnering with Samsung on a new “mixed-reality” device. Microsoft pushed back on the HoloLens assertions. But then, one of the executives leading HoloLens’ development, Alex Kipman, resigned after allegations of misconduct including inappropriate sexual behavior, leaving the division in flux. That being said, Microsoft has shown a keen interest in investing in creating software for the metaverse — whatever form it might take. At its Ignite conference last year, the company announced Mesh for Teams, which combines the company’s Mesh platform for powering shared experiences in virtual reality, augmented reality and elsewhere with Teams and its built-in productivity tools.

Meta wants you to drop $1,499 on a headset to… go to work • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in Apps, meta, Meta Connect 2022, virtual desktopNo Comments

What happens when you’re working away from your office, so you don’t have your big desk and multiple large monitors with you? You could just use your laptop and make do. Or, you could buy a $1,499 Quest Pro, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is built with work specifically in mind. Today, in Horizon Workrooms, Meta is adding a Personal Office feature, which lets you create your own custom slice of the metaverse to… work. “One of the best things in VR is you can create environments that go beyond what’s possible in the physical world,” Zuckerberg said in the Meta Connect presentation today. “Of course, that goes for productivity setups too, so you have instant access to your perfect workspace that’s set up just how you want, no matter where you are.” A similar app, Virtual Desktop, first became available on the Oculus Rift (RIP to Oculus branding) in 2016. So, the idea of bringing your computer into VR isn’t exactly new. But from the brief glimpse we saw in today’s presentation, it looks like Meta has elevated their idea a bit. Image Credits: Meta “Eventually, we think that your Quest could be the only monitor that you’ll actually need,” said Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth. No matter how advanced a virtual workspace gets, it’s hard to imagine people using a VR headset to work eight-hour days. If people already suffer from eye strain and headaches from working at a computer (staring through my blue light glasses as I type this), will they really want to strap screens to their face? Still, Meta’s executives are confident that this is the way forward. “There’s an opportunity for a VR headset designed from the ground up to be great for work, as well as playing games and hanging out,” Zuckerberg said, before unveiling the Quest Pro, along with Meta’s partnership with Microsoft.

Here’s what you missed at Meta Connect 2022 • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in Apps, meta, Meta Connect 2022, Virtual realityNo Comments

Last year at Meta Connect, the company then known as Facebook dropped a bombshell: it would now be known as Meta and focus on building the “metaverse.” After investing billions of dollars into the future of virtual reality, the rebranded Meta came back this year for its next big announcement: legs. Yes, avatars are going to get legs — our disembodied torsos will finally assume their bipedal form. Okay, fine, we all know that the biggest announcement today was the anticipated Meta Quest Pro, a high-end VR headset retailing at $1,499.99. But in between its new hardware and… legs, Meta unveiled a number of updates in its plan to dominate virtual reality. Here’s what CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives revealed at Meta Connect 2022: The Quest Pro is shipping out this month. After months of buzz, Meta unveiled the upcoming Quest Pro headset. With Meta’s last headset, the Quest 2, the company’s goal was to produce an affordable, consumer-grade product. But the mixed reality Quest Pro is Meta’s chance to flex the result of all the money it’s invested into Reality Labs. Microsoft is partnering with Meta to bring workplace tools to VR. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, joined Zuckerberg at Meta Connect to announce that Windows apps, a Teams integration and Xbox Cloud Gaming will come to Quest. Users will also be able to use progressive web app versions of tools like Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook. Avatars in Microsoft Teams. Meta is really doubling down on this whole “working in VR” thing. Who’s the audience for a $1,499 headset? Corporations, maybe. Meta said it deployed 60,000 Quest 2 headsets as part of a partnership with Accenture, and it’s building a “Meta Quest for Business” subscription product next year. “There’s an opportunity for a VR headset designed from the ground up to be great for work, as well as playing games and hanging out,” Zuckerberg said. CTO Andrew Bosworth seems to be on the same page, noting that one day, VR headsets might replace our desktops all together. We’ll believe it when we see it. Meta finally revealed some revenue numbers. Until now, Meta has been pretty cagey when it comes to revealing any financials about its metaverse (unless if it’s the SEC asking). Today, the company said that its Quest Store has made over $1.5 billion on sales of games and apps. That sounds impressive, but consider that just last quarter, Meta invested $2.8 billion into virtual reality. It’s time to get swole. Exercise is an unexpected use case for virtual reality. There’s a lot to be skeptical about when it comes to Zuckerberg’s intense metaverse push, but VR fitness apps like Supernatural are actually very fun. Now, Meta is releasing a product bundle to help you be… less sweaty when you’re boxing in your headset. For $69.99, you get a wipeable facial interface, wrist straps and adjustable knuckle straps. Is that really worth $69.99? I don’t know, is the Quest Pro really worth $1,499.99? We’ll see. Image Credits: Meta Meta lands a partnership with NBCUniversal. As part of a multi-year deal, the streaming app Peacock is coming to Quest. Meta also said that it will develop experiences around IP like The Office, Universal Monsters, DreamWorks, Blumhouse, Halloween Horror Nights. Share videos from Horizon Worlds on Reels. We’re not sure who wanted this, but sure. Why not. In all seriousness, it could be a good way for Meta to simply raise awareness about what Horizon Worlds is and how (a small number of) people are using it. But Horizon Worlds is kind of boring at best, so we don’t see this catching on. Image Credits: Meta But what if legs could change everything? Yeah, Horizon Worlds is a pretty cringe-worthy attempt at convincing people that the metaverse is cool. But what if our disembodied torsos finally had legs? In the next update to Meta’s avatars, we will finally look like real people. Kind of. “Seriously, legs are hard!” Zuckerberg quipped during the presentation. Well, if you’re eager to edit some spreadsheets, hop on Teams calls in VR and stretch your new digital legs, the Quest Pro is available for pre-order now and is expected to ship October 25.

Federal gig worker proposal tanks Uber, Lyft and DoorDash stocks • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in Apps, DoorDash, Lyft, Transportation, UberNo Comments

The stock prices of Uber, Lyft and DoorDash slid on Tuesday after the Department of Labor announced proposed changes to how workers should be classified. The prospective guidance is intended to “combat employee misclassification,” the federal agency said. Investors swiftly drove Uber’s share price down by more than 10% to $24.61, while Lyft’s tanked more than 12% to $11.22 and DoorDash’s slid more than 5% to $44.98 at the time of writing. The change could make it easier for contractors to gain full employment status if they are “economically dependent” on the company, although the scope of the rule would be limited to areas such as minimum wage enforcement. The proposal is subject to a public comment period, which runs from from October 13 to November 28. Uber, Lyft and DoorDash depend extensively upon so-called gig workers, who haul people and meals around on their behalf but do not receive many hard-won benefits of employment — such as employer contributions towards their Social Security and Medicare taxes. Despite pressure from labor organizers and some lawmakers, tech firms have fought to continue classifying their workers as independent contractors, arguing the status benefits their businesses, other local businesses and workers themselves. Efforts to alter gig worker classification in the U.S. include a recently rejected ballot measure in Massachusetts, which could have explicitly defined such workers as independent contractors. In California, an effort to secure benefits for gig workers — AB-5 — passed in 2019. A year later, app-based gig workers in California were excluded from the law via Proposition 22, which itself was deemed unconstitutional in the state in 2021. However, app-based gig companies have appealed that ruling and continue to operate in California under the guidance of Prop 22. (Every day is a winding road.) In a statement, Lyft claimed the proposal had “no immediate or direct impact on the Lyft business at this time.” The firm then reiterated its argument that classifying gig workers as employees would deny them independence and flexibility. DoorDash published a similar statement on its blog earlier today. Uber also cited flexibility in an email to ZebethMedia, saying the “proposed rule takes a measured approach, essentially returning us to the Obama era, during which our industry grew exponentially.” In stark contrast, groups such as Gig Workers Rising have long argued that independent classification denies gig workers “basic worker protections and rights,” such as unionization, living wages and benefits such as paid time off. While ride-hail and meal-delivery companies argue that changes to how workers are classified would threaten their business models, these firms aren’t profitable. Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have posted hefty net losses under the status quo.

Meta partners with NBCUniversal to bring you into “The Office” • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in Apps, meta, Meta Connect 2022, nbcuniversal, Virtual realityNo Comments

We already know that Meta wants us to go to the office in in virtual reality — but what about The Office? As part of a multi-year partnership with NBCUniversal, NBCUniversal’s streaming app Peacock is coming to the Meta Quest virtual reality headset. “Starting next year, Meta and NBCU will co-create experiences around The Office, Universal Monsters, DreamWorks, Blumhouse, Halloween Horror Nights and so much more,” said Vishal Shah, Meta’s VP of Metaverse, at the Meta Connect event. Fans can engage with this content through the social VR app Horizon Worlds, as well as at Universal Studios theme parks in real life. This partnership could help Meta capitalize around existing fandoms to get them to buy VR headsets, but Meta didn’t provide much detail about what these VR experiences will entail. A Halloween Horror Nights-themed experience could capitalize on VR’s unique ability to make horror even more horrifying (I mean, it is immersive). And, since DreamWorks is in the mix here, may we suggest a Shrek game?

NocoDB takes on Airtable with open source no-code platform that connects to production databases • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in Airtable, Apps, Baserow, Enterprise, no code, NocoDB, open sourceNo Comments

A new company is setting out to challenge Airtable, the 10-year-old company recently valued at a whopping $11 billion, with a slightly different take on what it means to be a no-code database platform. NocoDB is one of a number of startups to emerge on the scene with plans to usurp the mighty Airtable, with an open source foundation serving as a core selling point. While NocoDB works in a similar fashion in terms of allowing non-technical users to create fresh databases, its twist is that it also works directly on live “production” data that resides in databases such as Postrgres, MySQL, or MariaDB, or data warehouses, and turns them into what it calls a “smart spreadsheet”. This allows anyone to leverage legacy databases without needing IT’s input — no SQL queries or code required. It’s all about enabling business, finance, or even marketing teams to connect to live data and collaborate with developers to build no-code applications. U.K.-based founder and CEO Naveen Rudrappa claims that the core open source project has already been used by more than 2,000 companies including behemoths such as Google, Walmart, American Express, and McAfee. “The adoption we’ve seen has been really unprecedented — we’ve had 7 million Docker downloads within one year of launch and more than 30,000 GitHub stars, putting us amongst the top 350 open source projects in the world,” Rudrappa told ZebethMedia. NocoDB: Grid view Image Credits: NocoDB A little more than a year on from its inception, the company is announcing a sizeable seed funding round from a veritable who’s who from the angel investment world. The funding has in fact dripped in over a couple of tranches since its incorporation in June last year, but in total the round amounts to around $10.5 million, with institutional backers including Decibel, OSS Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Together.fund. The angel side, meanwhile, includes YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley; WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg; RedHat cofounder Bob Young; early Google investor Ram Shriram; and founders from Cloudera, CockroachDB, PipeDream, Talend, AngelList, BrightRoll, and Freshworks. The story so far The genesis of NocoDB can be traced back to 2017, when Rudrappa was working on a related open source database “passion project” under a different name, one that was purely a backend with no user interface at all. The problem he was trying to solve involved creating APIs to access a MySQL database of U.K. real estate data — something that wasn’t easy to achieve. “I realized that the fundamental problem of making a database API-accessible still remained unsolved,” Rudrappa said. “So, I built a prototype, released it on GitHub, and the next morning woke up to see a thousand GitHub stars for my project. The problem was much more widespread than I had imagined and my initial prototype had struck a chord with the users. This hobby project received a quarter of a million downloads, then I decided to team up with a friend and started building NocoDB.” When NocoDB arrived on GitHub last year, Rudrappa said that it garnered more than a million downloads within the first ten weeks. “Live production data stores, like MySQL or Snowflake, are intimidating for business users, or even to developers who aren’t used to working with the backend tech stack,” he said. “But they need access to this data in order to build useful applications quickly. NocoDB makes it possible to connect any organizational data source to the universally well-understood spreadsheet interface, allowing users with zero coding experience to build workflows and automations that work in concert with real business data.” With $10.5 million in the bank, and the support of some of the biggest names from the technology sphere, NocoDB is well-positioned to build out a commercial component to the main open source project. This includes a new premium incarnation that’s currently in private beta, one that allows companies to connect to Oracle Database and Snowflake. “This commercial version is a request from the customer side, as they need a working contract with us when they use the software,” Rudrappa explained. “Enterprise customers need different support, and we want to accommodate that while also balancing the needs of our open source community.” On top of that, NocoDB is also working on a managed and hosted cloud version, replete with enterprise-grade features including connectors, single sign-on (SSO), access control, auditing, and more.